There is a multiplicity or prior art devices known, whose purpose is to provide holding means for shopping lists, coupons, circulars and the like. Examples of this prior art are contained in U.S. Design Pat. No. DES. 355,063 to Pirnat; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,881,267 to Hicks; 4,443,961 to Gilroy; 4,496,058 to Harris; 4,848,117 to Welborn et al; 5,086,960 to Schwietzer and 5,566,609 to Kirschner. It should be noted the above are only a small sampling of the prior art but are typical examples thereof.
All of the above prior art have in common the following three elements (1) a planar surface for writing on a shopping list; (2) means for holding coupons, circulars and the like and (3) means for attachment and/or resting the device securely to a shopping cart. All of these devices are of designs of varying complexity and cost of fabrication but even the simplest of these devices having a multiplicity of elements and are relatively costly to manufacture.
The primary purpose of all of these prior art devices is to provide convenient means for the shopper to hold coupons, circulars and the like and to hold a shopping list and means for providing a surface to mark off the shopping list with a pen or pencil while shopping.
Regardless of the differences in the prior art, whether meant to be permanently attached to the shopping cart and then removed to be taken home with the shopper or otherwise, the devices main function is to provide a convenient means for holding circulars, lists and coupons and means for checking off the list as shopping progresses.
Recently in-store advertising has increased at a very rapid rate. Except for one or two exceptions, there is currently no advertising medium that stares the consumer in the face as he or she shops. All of the different types of stores which utilize shopping carts resort to a variety of in-store advertisements that often go unnoticed by the shoppers. These in-store advertisements are located on walls, floors, aisles and on the front of the shopping carts but strikes in the industry show that these methods of advertising do not grab the attention of the shopper. In spite of this, advertisers are currently paying very high rates for the aforementioned advertisements with little measurable success.
Although the majority of the billions of dollars spent yearly are allocated between mediums such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the ability to judge the effectiveness of these mediums (newspapers, magazines, radio and television) is marginal at best. However, with its retail information infrastructure, in-store advertising's effectiveness is more easily measured and is gradually gaining favor with advertisers. Moreover, it has been found that the majority of brand-buying decisions occur within the particular store during the shopping experience. Therefore, there is a perceived need for an extremely low cost in-store advertising device that also includes functional utility.
None of the prior art known to the inventor provide an extremely low cost per unit device having an indicia space directly visible to the shopper as he/she shops with emphasis on renewable advertisements as well as a simple means for holding coupons, lists, circulars and the like and, therefore, as stated hereinbefore, there is a perceived need for such a device.